Morning Break: Fat Shaming, Brainless, 9/11 Cancers

Health news and commentary from around the Web, gathered by the MedPage Today staff.

Does "fat shaming" by "slim and sanctimonious" people make obesity even worse? Possibly, according to a British study showing that people who felt ostracized because of their weight tended to gain more weight as compared with obese people who had been treated more kindly.

The pejorative term "brainless" has taken on new meaning, as Chinese doctors report that a women who came to the hospital complaining of headaches and dizziness had no cerebellum. The doctors speculate that the woman's cerebral cortex adapted to handle functions normally controlled by the cerebellum.

When scientists give up: one becomes a distiller, another opens a grocery. The fact that their edgy ideas couldn't secure funding drove them away, NPR reports.

Ebola survivor Kent Brantly, MD, has donated blood for another doctor infected by the virus, as health officials think Brantly has developed antibodies that will help Rick Sacra, MD, fight the disease.

Mobile, Ala., is the latest hot spot for the enterovirus outbreak. Staff at USA Children's & Women's Evaluation Center there have treated at least 340 children since mid-August.

A London-based tobacco company won regulatory approval to market a nicotine-dosing device as a "medicinal product" for smoking cessation. Shaped like a cigarette, the inhaler delivers a precise nicotine dose without the need for heat, electronics, or batteries, making it a competitor of e-cigarettes.

Morning Break is a daily guide to what's new and interesting on the Web for healthcare professionals, powered by the MedPage Today community. Got a tip? Send it to us: MPT_editorial@everydayhealthinc.com.

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